2012/09/15: upgraded from a traditional hard drive to Crucial m4 Solid State Drive. Simply put, this was a monster upgrade. With the SSD, I don’t get the random FPS dips in performance due to hard drive grinding. Now that I’ve gone SSD I won’t go back. The improved performance justifies the high cost

The reasons I adopted a mechanical keyboard were the improved feel, responsiveness, and accuracy when gaming and to reduce EMF exposure. After hands-on testing with Cherry MX Red and Brown switches, I found that the Brown switches didn’t live up to the hype and stuck with Red switches.

For a long time, for gaming and streaming I used the affordable Plantronics Multimedia Stereo Headset (Audio 350), because it was comfortable on my head and ears and worked fine. I upgraded to the Razer Carcharias headset and while it wasn’t cheap (~$75 USD), the Carcharias is incredibly comfortable and worth the money. The Carcharias is not a wireless headset, which I prefer as I don’t like having to deal with dead batteries.

I don’t use gaming mouse or keypad peripherals, as I don’t need them per my Guide on Strafing and Keybinding. I solve the keybinds issue with software not hardware.

External Monitor

I use a Asus VS247H-P 24″ HD monitor as the display device for online games. I purchased the monitor in Q1 2012, as it was the combination of highest-rated and reasonably-priced 1080p HD monitor that I could find. I love it.

The monitor was paid for thanks to a very generous donation from Troy “Cannibaal”. Thanks man, I really appreciate all the support – financial and non-financial, that you’ve given to me. <3

This is going to sound obvious, but if you want to record footage in 1080p, you need a 1080p monitor to play on. Prior to obtaining this monitor, I was only about to record footage in 1600×900, which is between 720p and 1080p, which is why until recently my videos were 720p on YouTube. Now they’re 1080p, as they should be.

Game Footage Recording, Narration, and Editing

I capture game footage with FRAPS. In my opinion, it’s worth paying the license fee (~$37 USD) so you can record yourself playing and then review it later to identify and fix mistakes in gameplay. Of course, you need a program like FRAPS if you want to make videos of game footage. I record FRAPS footage at 30 fps in Full-size and with “Record Win7 sound” checked and in stereo.

For editing, I’m using Adobe Premiere Elements 10, which for me provides sufficiently robust editing capability and a not-too-steep learning curve at an affordable price. I paid $79 USD for my downloadable copy on Amazon, but if you’re patient you may be able to snag it for even cheaper since Amazon is constantly tweaking their pricing. For exporting (publishing) videos, I use MPEG-2 format at 1080p (1920 x 1080 resolution) at 29.97 framerate.

Before you ask, I can’t answer about video editing questions for Final Cut Pro, Sony Vegas, or Adobe Premiere CS.

For recording narration, I use a Blue Snowball microphone (~$65 USD) with a Shure pop filter (~$35 USD). A pop filter improves recording quality by reducing consonants that have popping sounds such as words that start with “p” or “b”. If you’re going to bother getting a good mic, you should invest in a pop filter as well.

Webcam Recording and Streaming Hardware

If you plan on doing on-camera recording at your computer, e.g. for vlogging / hosting / streaming, I strongly recommend getting a 1080p webcam, so that you have the max HD quality available.

In July 2012, I purchased a Logitech 1080p C920 webcam for $80 USD, and the webcam rocks. It comes with software for recording for the webcam that is super easy to use. Before that I was using the Logitech 720p C310 webcam, but the footage it recorded in 720p looked grainy. If you can afford it, the C920 is the way to go.

For hosting on GAMEBREAKER shows, I use a high-quality condenser microphone, the Samson SE10 earset condenser microphone (~$100 USD). It may be overkill for what you’re doing, but Gary Gannon raves about it, because it’s a professional microphone in audio quality and appearance. Some people use their Snowball microphone or equivalent for hosting. For some reason I can’t get the Samson SE10 to work well with narrated recordings with Adobe Premiere Elements 10, and I haven’t bothered to sort it out.

Do you have the CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack)? On windows machines if provides almost every codex I’ve ever needed. Still can’t watch my dxtory vids on my fiancée’s MBP since there’s no good QuickTime codec for it.

Do you have the CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pack)? On windows machines if provides almost every codex I’ve ever needed. Still can’t watch my dxtory vids on my fiancée’s MBP since there’s no good QuickTime codec for it.

Interesting.

I haven’t installed the codecs, but most of the content I consume is on YouTube or some other hosted site (e.g. NetFlix) so there is no codec issue.

Well, you are skipping the codec that many others are facing by staying in windows and going right into Premiere. For me to work with Fraps in Final Cut I have to convert it to Quicktime somehow and that is hard….

FWIW My highly knowledgable IT guy at work (Thx Edgar!) actually advised against using Perian. He says it can actually create problems for Mac based machines and Quicktime in particular. AVI is just a format which is very foreign to QT and mac based systems.

I’ve been demoing the free version of Camtasia and really liking it. Its UI seems to heavily mirror the Avid / FCP setup but with a ton of easy to use transitions and effects. The pay version if a full $300 though, so I need to check out premiere and compare. Camtasia also has its own video capture options to avoid the fraps codec.

Kudos to you Ed. I personally use gaming periphs but I always try and advise to people that it isn’t a must and you can play at the highest levels without them. It’s all in the binds I tell them. Some have taken it to heart others.. not so much. Good write-up as usual Ed. Thanks for your presence in the gaming community. We can never have enough people like you. Keep it up!

Kudos to you Ed. I personally use gaming periphs but I always try and advise to people that it isn’t a must and you can play at the highest levels without them. It’s all in the binds I tell them. Some have taken it to heart others.. not so much. Good write-up as usual Ed. Thanks for your presence in the gaming community. We can never have enough people like you. Keep it up!

Thanks!

As I’ve said before, there’s nothing wrong with using gaming hardware, and for some games it’s incredibly helpful.

The main issue I have is that people use gaming hardware to fix a software problem – i.e. they are using the default horribad keybinds and then turn to a hardware solution to solve it.

Recently I upgraded to the Razer Carcharias headset and while it wasn’t cheap (~$75 USD), the Carcharias is incredibly comfortable and worth the money. The Carcharias is not a wireless headset, which I prefer as I don’t like having to deal with dead batteries.

Hi Ed, I’ve been watching your past swtor videos. I noticed that you are using a dual monitor setup with the game taking up one monitor (I’m assuming your main monitor) and your chat software + whatever voice comms on the other (your laptop screen?). My question is, how did you get full screen apps (primarily games) to launch and run on the secondary monitor? Or do you have to switch it to primary every time?

I’m asking because I’m trying to get a similar setup to work. I want the games to run on my secondary monitor so I can still access the desktop on my primary without having to alt-tab.

Hi Ed, I’ve been watching your past swtor videos. I noticed that you are using a dual monitor setup with the game taking up one monitor (I’m assuming your main monitor) and your chat software + whatever voice comms on the other (your laptop screen?). My question is, how did you get full screen apps (primarily games) to launch and run on the secondary monitor? Or do you have to switch it to primary every time?

My monitor is the #1 (primary) and my laptop screen is #2 (secondary).

Apps launch by default on #1. And I run games in windowed fullscreen so that I can tab over to other apps (e.g. Mumble, web browser) and not cause the game to minimize.